Shearing apparatus



Sept. 3, 1957 Filed March 2a, 1955 4 Shets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS John H.Hitchcoclfi BYEdmund S. mur'rah H orney p 1957 J. H. HITCHCOCK ETAL2,804,

SHEARING APPARATUS Filed March 28, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTORS I. 4John H. Hitchcock '7 BY Edmund 5. Durham a H o'rne Sept. 1957 J. H.HITCHCOCK EI'AL 2,804,925'

7 SHEARING APPARATUS Filed March 28, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IN V EN TORS5 J hT I Hitchcoclgl BY Edmu 5. murra SHEARING APPARATUS John H.Hitchcock and Edmund S. Murrah, Worcester, Mass, assignors to MorganConstruction Company, Worcester, Mass, a corporation of MassachusettsApplication March 28, 1955, Serial No. 496,998

2 Claims. (Cl. 164-66) This invention relates to a shear and, moreparticularly, to an electric shear for use in a rolling mill.

In the operation of a high-speed rolling mill, it is customary to use aso-called flying shear whose blades, at the instant of cutting, aretraveling at the same speed as the material to be cut. Although flyingshears were originally driven by steam, use of electric motors as thepropulsion power has increased over the last few years. The difficultiesexperienced with most flying shears and, particularly, those which areelectrically driven is that a shear which is designed particularly forcutting material travelling at high speeds and having a smallcross-sectional area has diificulty in cutting material of largercrosssectional area travelling at a slower speed. In some installations,however, it is necessary that a flying shear, which may be used to cutcrops and cobbles or which may be used to cut to length, be capable ofcutting properly regardless of the speed of delivery of the mill andirrespective of the cross-sectional area of the material being rolled.Furthermore, it is possible in present-day rolling mills that thematerial rolled may vary from a soft, easilycut material to a toughmetal, such as an alloy of steel, which is considerably more difficultto out. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior artdevices are obviated by the present invention in a novel manner.

It is, therefore, an outstanding object of the present invention toprovide a shear capable of cutting material travelling at a wide rangeof speeds having a wide range of cross-sectional area and having a widerange of toughness.

A further object of this invention is the provision of a flying shearwhich is capable of cutting with equal facility material in a rollingmill travelling at high speed and having a low cross-sectional area ormaterial travelling at low speed and having a large cross-sectionalarea.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a flying shearhaving an inherent inertia which maybe selectively changed.

Another object of the instant invention is the provision of a flyingshear having flywheels which may or may not be introduced into theinertia system of the shear at th option of the operator.

With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art, the invention results in the combination of partsset forth in the specification and covered by the claims appendedhereto.

The character of the invention, however, may be best understood byreference to certain of its structural forms as illustrated by theaccompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is an elevational view of a shearing apparatus constructedaccording to the present invention looking in the direction of the passline,

Figure 2 is a plan view somewhat reduced of the apparatus shown inFigure 1,

Figure 3 is an elevational View of a portion of the apparatus of theinvention taken on the line IIIIII of Figure 2,

2,864,925 Patented Sept. 3, 1957 Figure 4 is a sectional view of aportion of the invention taken on the line IVIV of Figure 2, and

Figure 5 is a sectional view of the invention taken on the line VV ofFigure 2.

Referring first to Figures 1 and 2, wherein is best shown the generalfeature of the invention, the shearing apparatus, indicated generally bythe reference numeral 10, is shown as comprising a shear 11 and a drive12. A shearll is of the type shown and described in the patent to MylesMorgan No. 2,157,000 and consists of a housing 13 in which are mountedtwo crankshafts 14 and 15 on which are supported cutting blades 16 and17, respectively. To the blades 16 and 17 are connected tail rods 18 and19, respectively, the outer ends of which are guided in cams, not shown,and which serve to maintain the blades 16 and 17 in the proper aspectduring the cutting portion of the cycle. The crankshafts 14 and 15 aredriven through couplings 2i and 21, respectively, by shafts 22 and 23extending from the drive apparatus 12.

The drive 12 comprises a gear housing 24 driven by four electric motors25, 26, 27 and 28 mounted on a suitable support 29. The electric motors25, 26, 27 and 28 have their shafts 36, 31, 32 and 33 connected by meansof couplings 34, 35, 36 and 37 to shafts 38, 39, 4t and 41,respectively.

As is evident in Figure 5, a shaft 46 is mounted in three bearings 42,43 and 44 fixed in the housing 24, and has keyed thereto a pinion gear45 located between the bearings 42 and 43; in a similar manner, theshaft 41 is mounted in bearings 46, 47 and 43 mounted in the housing 24and is provided with a pinion gear 49 keyed to the portion thereof lyingbetween the bearings 46 and 47. Referring to Figure 4, it can be seenthat the shaft 22 is mounted in bearings 50 and 51 fixed to the housing24 and has keyed thereto between the bearings a bull gear 52; in asimilar manner, the shaft 23 is mounted in bearings 53 and 54 fixed tothe housing 24 and between these bearings on the shaft 25 is keyed abull gear 55. It is to be noted that the shafts 38 and 39 are mounted ina manner similar to the shafts 4t and 41 and are provided with similarpinion gears. It can be seen from Figure 4 that the bull gears 52 and 55mesh with each other and, as is indicated in Figure 2, two of the piniongears mesh with each bull gear; for instance, a pinion gear 45associated with theshaft 40 meshes with the bull gear 52 while thepinion gear 49 associated with the shaft 41 meshes with the bull gear55. The pinion gears associated with the shafts 38 and 39 also mesh withbull gears 52 and 55 respectively.

Referring next to Figure 5, a heavy flywheel 56 is rotatably mounted onthe shaft 41. A roller bearing 57 is situated between these twoelements, the outer race being attached to the flywheel 56 while theinner race is attached to the shaft 41. A driven portion 58 of theclutch is welded or otherwise fastened to the flywheel coaxially withthe shaft 41 and the driving portion 59 of the clutch is slidablymounted on the shaft 41. The shaft is provided with splines 66 wherebythe driving portion 59 of the clutch can be keyed to the shaft 41 sothat it may slide longitudinally thereof without rotation relativethereto. The driven portion 58 of the clutch is provided with teeth 61adapted to engage with teeth 62 on the driving portion 59 of the clutch.A collar 63 is fastened around the driving portion 59 of the clutch andis pivotally attached to one end of a yoke 64. The other end of the yoke64 is securely fastened to a shaft 65. Also secured to the shaft 65 is alever 66 which with the yoke 64 acts in the manner of a bell crank. Theouter end of the lever 66 is pivotally connected to a clevis 67 by meansof a' pin 68. The clevis has a long shank which extends downwardly toone end of a lever 69. The central portion of lever 69 is h0rispring 76extends between the washer 73 and the washer" 74 and is normally undercompression. The other end of the lever 69 has pivotally attachedthereto a brake 77 which is adapted to engage the rim of the flywheel56. This portion of the actuating mechanism associated with the flywheel56 is enclosed within the housing 24.

. Figure 4 shows a portion of the actuating mechanism associated withthe flywheel 56, which portion is mounted externally of the housing 24.It can be seen that the shaft 65 extends outwardly of the housing 24 andhas attached thereto a crank arm 78. The hub of the crank arm which isattached and keyed to the shaft 65 is provided with a protuberance 79which is adapted to engage an adjustable stop member 80 which serves tolimit the counter-clockwise motion of the crank arm 78. The outer end ofthe crank arm 78 is pivotally connected to a clevis 81 having a shankwhich extends through a pivot block 82. The outer end of the shank isthreaded and is provided with a nut 83 on the underside of the block 82.The upper end of the shank of the clevis is also threaded and isprovided with a nut 84 which presses against a washer 85. A coil spring86 extends between the washer 85 and the block 82. A pin 87 extendsthrough the block 82 and has pivotally attached thereto one end of alink 88. The other end of the link 88 is pivotally connected to anabutment 89 fastened to the housing 24. Also pivoted on the pin 87 is aclevis 90 having a rod 91 fastened thereto. The rod 91 is the piston rodof a hydraulic cylinder 92, the other end of which is pivotallyconnected to an abutment 93 fastened to the housing 24. The clevis 81and its shank constitute with the link 88 a toggle which is actuatableby means of the cylinder 92 to move the crank arm 78 upwardly anddownwardly.

.It is to be noted that, whereas the shaft 41 is provided with theflywheel 56 and associated apparatus, the shafts 40, 38 and 39 areprovided with similar flywheels 94, 95 and 96, respectively, and each ofthese flywheels is provided with similar associated apparatus. It is tobe understood that the cylinder 92 finds its counterpart in apparatusassociated with the other flywheels of the inven tion and that all ofthe hydraulic cylinders are provided with control means, not shown, butwhich are under the control of an operator. I

The operation of the apparatus will now be clearly understood in view ofthe above description. Electric motors 25, 26, 27 and 28 are under thecontrol of an operator or of flag switches in the path of the movingmaterial to be sheared. The motor shafts drive through their couplingsto the shafts which are; mounted in the gear housing 24 and which bearthe pinion gears. The pinion gears actuate their respective bull gearsand they, in turn, act through the shafts 22 and 23 and the con.- plings20 and 21 to rotate the crankshafts 14 and 1 5. In the preferredembodiment of the invention, a shear will make a cut by starting fromrest and accelerating to attain the proper cutting speed at the instantthat the blades sever the material. This manner of shear operation isshown and described in the patent of Edmund S. Murrah No. 2,500,999.Because of the inter-engagement of the pinion gears and bull gears, itcan be seen that the four motors will bear theload in equal proportions.When it is desired to cut material of small cross section travelling ata high rate of speed, ,it can be seen that it will be necessary toaccelerateall the parts of the shearing apparatus from zero speed to ahigh peripheral speed at the moment of cutting. For that reason, it willbe best to use a shearing apparatus of small inertia which can be easilyaccelerated. Because of the small cross sectional area, the apparatusneed not possess the capability of doing a large amount of work duringthe cutting operation. For that reason, the flywheel 56 and itscounterpart flywheels 94, and 96 are not connected to their respectiveshafts and take no part in the shearing operation. If, however, it isdesired to cut material of large cross sectional area or of relativelytough material, the shearing apparatus must have sufl'icient inertia sothat the cutting operation may be performed with the inherent work ofthe moving apparatus. If the shearing apparatus is of insuflicientinertia to perform the cutting operation, the load of the cuttingoperation will have to be carried by the motors and this they are notcapable of doing. With the present apparatus, therefore, the operatorcauses the actuating mechanism to connect each of the flywheels to itsshaft. For instance, in the case of the cylinder 92, hydraulic fluidwill be introduced into the cylinder in such a way that the piston rod91 will move inwardly thus acting upon the toggle formed by the clevis81 and the lever 88. The inward movement of the piston rod 91 willstraighten the toggle, that is to say, it will tend to place the shankof the clevis 81 and the link 88 more nearly in line, thus moving thecrank arm 78 counterclockwise as it is shown in Figure 4 and moving theshafts 65 in the same direction. Moving the shaft 65 in acounterclockwise direction first serves to move the driving portion 59of the clutch toward the driven portion 58, thus causing the teeth 61and 62 to engage. The flywheel 56 is then connected to the shaft 41 andmoves with it. The counterclockwise movement of the shaft 65 also servesto lift the clevis 67 and its shank carrying the end of the lever 64with it and causing the brake 77 to move downwardly away from theflywheel 56 to release it. The flywheel 56 and the similar flywheels 94,95 and 96 then move with their respective shafts and add to the inertiaof the shearing apparatus. Although the shearing apparatus will notaccelerate as rapidly because of this inertia, it is not necessary thatacceleration be rapid because the cutting speed with a larger crosssection is presumably much less. A large inertia, however, does serve toprovide sufficient energy for the more diflicult cutting operation, asis evident. When it is desired to release the flywheel 56 from its shaft41, the operator will cause the cylinder 92 to operate in such a mannerthat the piston 91 moves outwardly, thus causing the clevis 81 and thelink 88 to move more out of line and thus move the crank arm 78 in aclockwise direction. This clockwise movement of the crank arm causes asimilar movement of the shaft 65 bringing about the disengagement of theteeth 61 and 62 of the clutch and at the same time, causing the brake 77to move upwardly against the flywheel 56 bringing to rest.

It is obvious that minor changes may be made in the form andconstruction of the invention without departing from the material spiritthereof. It is not, however, desired to confine the invention to theexact form herein shown and described, but it is desired to include allsuch as properly come within the scope claimed.

The invention having thus been described, what is claimed as new anddesired to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A shearing apparatus comprising a flying shear, electric motors, adrive connecting the motors to the shear for the operation thereof, ashaft mounted in the drive and connected to the shear, a bull gear keyedto the shaft, a second shaft mounted in the drive and connected with thebull gear, a flywheel rotatably mounted on the second shaft, a brake forthe flywheel, a clutch having one portion fixed to the flywheel and theother portion attached to the shaft, and an actuating mechanism forcausing the two portions of the clutch to inter-engage to connect theflywheel to the shaft to increase the inertia of the driving apparatusand for releasing the brake from the flywheel, the said mechanismincluding a hydraulic motor acting through a lever system to actuate theclutch and to actuate the brake.

2. A shearing apparatus comprising a flying shear, electric motors, adrive connecting the motors to the shear for the operation thereof, ashaft mounted in the drive and connected to the shear, a bull gear keyedto the shaft, a second shaft mounted in the drive and connected with thebull gear, a flywheel rotatably mounted on the second shaft, a brake forthe flywheel, a positivelyengaging clutch having one portion fixed tothe flywheel and the other portion attached to the shaft, and anactuating mechanism for causing the two portions of the clutch tointer-engage to connect the flywheel to the shaft to increase theinertia of the driving apparatus and for releasing the brake from theflywheel, the said mechanism including a hydraulic motor acting througha lever system simultaneously to actuate the clutch and deactivate thebrake.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS MarchOct. 21, 1913 Bresson July 25, 1916 Dominguez Mar. 29, 1917 LangstonNov. 16, 1920 Allen Mar. 30, 1926 Day Mar. 5, 1929 Grupe Mar. 5, 1940Murrah Mar. 21, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Italy Jan. 9, 1940 Germany June 18,1953 Germany July 13, 1953

